No cookies, no walking...those are the rules

So the past few days have been academics with a little fun on the side.  I probably emphasized the second part a little too much for my grades' liking, but hey.  So we took our exam which I think went well but we never know in Africa.  Then I learned that I was in Wildlife Management directed research which isn't the one I chose but it was my second choice so I was okay with it.  So I started talking to people as everybody got excited about their new groups and I found out that everybody got their first choice in the entire group except for me.  This is when I started getting a bit skeptical.  So I approached one of the professors (wearing my sass pants of course) and asked if I could switch.  He told me it was logistics and that there were too many people in the group.  To which I knew he was not telling the truth because people who ranked WM and Wildlife Ecology (my choice) evenly got put in WE.  So I admitted this to him and he looked a bit stunned.  Finally after quite some time they admitted that they had decided as faculty and with the safety director at SFS that it would be safer for me to be in WM because I was in a vehicle at all times and WE consists of long hikes.  "We didn't think walking was the safest option for you with your diabetes."  Well, that's a new one I thought.  Apparently not only can we not eat cookies but we can't walk now either.  I was extremely annoyed and put my sass sweatshirt on and said, "I think it's completely unfair for you all to make decisions about me without even consulting me especially when you know little to nothing about diabetes.  I would like you to tell me everything you know about diabetes."  To which he was a little stunned and after a little finally blurted, "well I know it's caused by too much insulin. And we think the walking will make your diabetes worse."  Okay, so now I can't walk and apparently it's getting worse in case I didn't have it "bad enough" before.  I wasn't even really sure where to begin.  So I started explaining him the basics such as diabetes isn't caused by too much insulin, and yes I can walk (even run on good days :-) ), and yes I will be eating a slice of my birthday cake in a week.  I think he was a little embarrassed because he got pretty quiet and said he would talk it over with the other professors and our Student Affairs Manager.  Finally it was decided that I could go with the WE Directed Research but at that point I was already behind and I just now caught up, handing in my proposal a day late.  But, the research starts tomorrow and my goals include 1) publishing my final paper on the human impacts on the ecology and distribution of large mammalian wildlife 2) showing the professors that diabetes doesn't mean you can't walk and that they shouldn't make assumptions without even remotely any knowledge behind it and 3) to visit the kids at the primary school for reading time every day after fieldwork whether I'm exhausted or not.  Hopefully the goals will go well and that at least I'll change one person's misperceptions of diabetes....possibly even two if it goes really well.  But, for now, this is what I will look like for the next 10 days, hopefully the happiness will stick.